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Sunny Cal

R. O. Whyman & Co., Inc., 5 ¹/₂" without marquee, 13 ³/₄" with marquee. This is one of the most unusual vendors available and is quite scarce. The cover is made of thick sheet metal and has the busiest pattern I've ever seen painted on a vendor. The bottom is aluminum. According to Silent Salesmen Too and the marquee, the machine dispensed slices of Sunny Cal frosted fruitcake for a dime each. This is the tag, which designates the machine's maker and serial number. More later about the serial number. I think this machine is astonishingly cool, and even my wife likes it.

The example above is 100% original. It's missing its lock, which would go through a hole just off-center on the top of the machine, which is (inadvertently---I swear!) hidden behind the marquee post in the picture above. I'll add a lock if I ever find the right one, but I'm not losing sleep over its missingness.

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Okay, back to the serial number, which is part of a backstory. I wanted one of these for years but they eluded me. I write that as though I had lots of chances but kept hitting various forms of bad luck, but in reality I can't recall ever having one available to me until this one. Sunny Cal is not listed as "rare" in the Silent Salesmen Too price guide, but they're really uncommon and hard to find if you're looking to buy one. I never chased one specifically, but I always had my eyes open looking for an opportunity. It came in early December 2024 at the Morphy auction of Rich Penn's collection, which I assume this was part of.

The machine pictured above is the second example I've had in my possession but I didn't own the first one---I was merely a mule, helping a friend get it from a Chicagoland show to his Arizona domicile. This is that machine, which I pictured at the top of this page for 15 years before getting the one from Morphy. The previous example had a neat flap that popped up and blocked the coin entry when the machine was empty. That feature is important for an opaque machine like this since customers can't see when the next slot is empty. The marquee'd machine pictured top of the page also has that flap but it's not popped up even though the machine is empty. I'll try to figure out why when I have more time.

Okay, back again to the serial number. When I had my friend's machine 15 years ago I took a picture of the tag because the serial number was a lot higher than I'd expected it to be given the scarcity of this model. When I noticed the serial number on Rich Penn's machine---pictured above---I took a picture of that, too, so I could show them together. Check it out. The first tag is my friend's machine, picture taken in late December 2009. The second tag is my new-to-me Morphy/Rich Penn machine, picture taken late December 2024. I gotta ask---is that freaky, or what?! I can't believe that Whyman & Company started these at "1," or even 10000, although 10000 would be immensely easier to believe than "1." A friend has one with serial number 10311 so Whyman didn't start at 20000, but they might possibly perhaps have started at 10000. I inspected the pictures of this model on Silent Salesmen Too pages 170 and 234 to get at least one more datum to help answer this question, but neither one is decipherable. I'll update this page if I get more information on this topic.

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Finally, below is the result of an experiment that doesn't pertain to this model specifically, but I used this machine to test something that others may find relevant. It was inspired by a friend who extolls the virtues of Kramer's Antique Improver, a product that claims to revitalize and protect old wood (click here for more information). Antique Improver's advertising claims are limited to old wood, but my friend loves what it does to tired paint on his vending machines. We see each other every Chicagoland show, and he'll sometimes advise me to use Antique Improver to make graphics pop on an age-worn painted machine. I decided to test the efficacy of Antique Improver on this machine, which was in good shape when I got it but given its colorful and complicated graphics, I thought Antique Improver could make the machine pop ever more than it did.

So, I took a picture of the machine as I'd received it, then applied Antique Improver to it and let it set overnight. I then took a picture the next day using the same equipment and lighting. I didn't layer on the Antique Improver, but I rewet the rag often and could tell that I wasn't skimping on the Kramer's. I could see product being left on the machine, and it wasn't a thin barely-there layer---it was enough to do the trick if a trick were to be done. I knew that any lack of effect would not be because I'd not applied enough liquid.

The first picture shows the machine before the Antique Improver. The second picture is post-application. The machine after application looks a little richer but (in my opinion) the difference is slight. It may help nourish and protect the finish, in which case it has a benefit beyond the aesthetics. From the perspective of aesthetics alone, though, on this particular machine the finish was good enough when I got it that Antique Improver didn't help to a meaningful extent. I know from experience that the improvement can be substantial with wood, which is what Kramer says it should be used on.

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